Monday, July 7, 2014

I was at one of the big box home remodeling stores and picked up a gallon of paint thinner, since I was almost out on the boat. Instead of a metal can or a translucent polypropylene container, it was in a white container. I didn't give that any thought at all.

Big mistake.

On the boat ready to clean a brush just used for varnishing, I pulled the DOT seal and saw... not at all what I expected. This was a gallon of milk. No, seriously - it was an emulsion of paint thinner in water, looking exactly like milk.

Looking more closely at the label (which I should have done in the store), I saw that this was being marketed as "safe" paint thinner. We Americans will go to any length, to any ridiculous length, to remove any trace of risk, won't we? But this? I think this is an EPA-designed thinner, being marketed as "safe". Of course it is cheaper to manufacture too, since water is less expensive than actual paint thinner.

But tho it is "safe", and has very low VOC, what is it good for? There is no way I or anyone else would dump this milk into a $60 quart of varnish. And I wouldn't trust it even to clean my least expensive varnish brush. I cannot even imagine it being useful as a thinner for water-based varnish, since that stuff is already as runny as milk.

Kicking myself for my stupidity, I set the container by the marina dumpster.